Phoenix.BloggersPub

Record: 52-51. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -3

Hello, above .500. We've not seen you for a bit - not since the calendar left June behind, almost four weeks ago. But, slowly, this team appears to be returning to... Well, if not quite the behemoth that bestrode the early season like... like... like a bestriding, behemothesque thing, then at least a team capable of playing solid baseball, and beating the opposition in a number of ways. Winners in four of our last five, and having gone 9-6 over fifteen: this is encouraging.

What genius was it who said, after the first inning, "I think our best hope is to take a lot of pitches, weather the storm, then plunder the Giants bullpen"? Oh, that was me. And the plan worked to perfection. After seven innings, San Francisco had the lead, and Lincecum was hit for in the bottom of the inning. His lead lasted exactly one out into the top of the eighth and the Giants' relief corps, as we took full advantage of an error and Chris Young's sacrifice fly tied the game at three. An RBI single from - who else? - Mr. Reliability, Conor Jackson, gave us the lead, and a sacrifice fly from Tracy added an insurance run. Jon Rauch pitched a perfect eighth, and Lyon worked around a single to get his 21st save. Mission accomplished - and not in a President Bush, horrifically premature, way.

Webb becomes the NL's first fourteen-game winner, running his record to 14-4, thanks to the late outburst from our hitters. He allowed a run in the first, on a sacrifice fly, but after a lengthy inning there, settled down. The only other Giants' scoring came with two outs in the sixth, on a two-RBI single that gave the lead back to San Franciso. But despite (arguably) being out-pitched by Lincecum - who struck out thirteen in seven innings, particularly brutalizing Drew three times, leading off the first, fourth and sixth innings - it was Webb who came out with the W. He allowed four hits, two walks and three earned runs in seven frames, striking out eight. That  took him past 1,000 for his career, though the Giants ran on him every chance they could, stealing three bases.

Similarly, it probably doesn't matter that we ended with a K:BB ratio for the night of 15:0, the worst ever in franchise history for a regulation game - we went 16:0 on August 31, 2004 against the Dodgers, albeit in 13 innings. Nor does it matter too much, that we lost two outs at home-plate, first as Romero tried to score from third on a grounder by Webb, and then as Snyder tried to score from second, after a Webb single. Are there stats available for this kind of thing? Because we certainly seem to be losing a lot of people there. What matters more on this evening, are the two-RBI double by Snyder, which represented the sum of our scoring off Lincecum, and the two hits he, Jackson and Hudson each posted.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Chris Snyder, +16.0%
Honorable mentions: Jackson, +15.8; Hudson, 14.1%; Ojeda, +14.0%
God-emperor of suck: Chris Young, -10.3%

A somewhat lightly-attended, but still brisk and thoroughly-entertaining Gameday Thread: well, I enjoyed it, anyway! Even without 'Skins [in Ecuador] and 'Charmer [at the game, I believe], we slipped past five hundred comments, so thanks to  kishi, hotclaws, dahlian, AF DBacks Fanatic, Wimb, mrssoco, TwinnerA, soco, unnamedDBacksfan, Scrbl, Muu, luckycc and  AZWILDCATS for their contributions. It was a wide-ranging discussion, that covered everything from tattoos to Christian Bale. Just another night at the SnakePit, even though I forgot to post the link to the chat-room. Must add it as a permanent one on the sidebar.

The win means we've taken back-to-back series for the first time since May 18, when we beat Detroit in the rubber game of that encounter, after having swept the Rockies. More evidence of a positive trend. Now, let's see if we can extend the winning streak to three tomorrow - having gone 0-6 in our previous attempts to do so over the past couple of months. It promises to be an engrossing battle of overpaid left-handed starters... More on that one tomorrow, though the Gameday Thread probably won't appear until after noon. I'm still at The Sets at time of posting, and we're just heading into the third - and most interesting! - act of our burlesque show, so we are still some way from seeing warm, pillowy fluffiness!

Brandon Webb RHP, 13-4, 3.11

Tim Lincecum RHP, 11-3, 2.79

Baseball-Reference.com preview [opens in new window]

This should be a lot of fun - two starting pitchers who will likely receive Cy Young votes at the end of the season, going up against each other. Promises to be a good test of our newly-rediscovered offense, though Lincecum has struggled of late, with only three quality starts in his last six outings. Milwaukee slapped him around pretty well in his last outing, tagging him for five runs, on six hits and four walks, in five innings. Is fatigue setting in? His ERA did go up above four in August and September last year. Webb, for his part, appears to have righted the ship after a rocky period, with three earned runs in his last three starts, covering 21 innings, and is undefeated in his last five outings.

I'll be down at The Sets for our burlesque show [tickets available at the door, he said, in a gratuitous plug!] but hope to be able to take in a good chunk on the TVs there, especially given the early start. I will be laptopped, so comments should be possible, at the very least. Naturally, be keeping an eye on the Nationals-Dodgers game, to see if Washington can do us a favor by beating LA. And I also see that 'Skins anti-Winn campaign has not gone un-noticed...

I just sent out the following email to all attendees, but am copying it here, in case anyone didn't get it...

Tickets have arrived. A provisional seat-map has been drawn up, and may be found below:
    http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/17201/festseats.jpg
Rows down the side, seat-numbers across the top. Our block is an irregular diagonal one, which made this...interesting. I've tried to sit people beside people they know, vaguely keep SnakePitters with SnakePitters and DBBP with DBBP, but there are those who frequent both and so on. I dealt as best as possible with seating requests I know about, but let me know any others.

Now, the important bit. How do your get your seats? There are various ways.

1. We'll be at Sliders on the day of the game, probably from very early [2-3pm, maybe - haven't worked that out yet] until about fifteen minutes before first pitch, which takes place at 5:10pm. You can just swing by and collect them. There's the Q+A with Josh Byrnes on that day too, if you have registered for that.
   
2. Pick them up from me before then. We live in Scottsdale, near the PV Mall, but are also all over the valley. In particular:
        a) Monday nights, we are at The Grand Tavern 2448 W. Grand Avenue [Grand Avenue and the I-17]
        b) Tuesday 29th July and August 12,  we will be at The Sets, 93 E. Southern [Mill and Southern] in Tempe
        c) I work downtown, two blocks East of Chase, so you can swing by and pick them up from me there, Mon-Fri business hours.
   In any of those cases, let me know in advance, or we probably won't have your tickets with us.
   
3. We can mail out, upon request [and will be, to Messrs Criscuolo and Morgan], but the postal service is what it is, and I dunno what happens if tickets get lost in the mail.

Please email me, and let me know how you intend to take delivery. Looking forward to it: should be a lot of fun!

Record: 51-51. Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: -3

Now that was fun. A nice, easy game. A relatively dominant start by Haren (what's new?). A minor offensive explosion, including a couple of crushed home runs. About the only thing that could have been better was the Dodgers getting beat by the Nationals, but alas.

The bulk of the damage (at least while the outcome was still in doubt) came swiftly. In the second inning, Snyder started things off with an RBI single, and was later followed with two-RBI doubles by Stephen Drew and Chris Young, dropping a five spot on the scoreboard and making things look very good for Dan Haren. Haren contributed to his own cause, hitting a double of his own and drawing a walk.

In the third, Conor Jackson stroked a pitch that was low and away over the left field wall for his 11th homer of the season. Unfortunately, he still isn't the world's bestest fielding corner outfielder, so his accomplishments will be forever banished from the record. Or something. Still, that was about it for the onslaught for a few innings while Haren continued to cruise relatively unscathed.

And cruise he did. Haren scattered nine hits in eight innings with an efficient 100 pitches, walking no one and striking out nine. He was pounding the strike zone and getting ahead in the count early. The Giants looked overmatched most of the night, and a number of the hits were on near-errors (a hot shot to Reynolds that bounced off his shoulder or one that ducked underneath Tracy's glove) or bloop singles. With Volquez being pounded by Colorado earlier in the day, Haren's 2.56 ERA quietly moved to first place in the National League. Simply put, he has been fantastic all season, but especially in the past two months.

Meanwhile, the offense tossed on a few more runs for good measure in the 8th. With runners on the corners and nobody out, CoJack swung and missed at two changeups after getting ahead 3-1 and struck out. Next up was Mark Reynolds, who strikes out a ton more than CoJack and had six K's in his last seven at-bats. Another wasted chance with a runner on third and less than two out? Not for Mr. Reynolds. As Gracie called it perfectly on the broadcast, it was about the worst matchup left-hander Geno Espineli could hope for: Reynolds likes lefties, likes fastballs and likes the ball low. The first pitch was a fastball in the bottom half, and the Sheriff absolutely drilled it about 430 feet to left-center. Just for good measure, Tracy smacked a pitch that may or may not have splashed down into McCovey Cove (even after a couple replays on TV, I honestly couldn't see where the ball hit). Plenty of run support for Haren and a lead that even the tattered bullpen couldn't screw up.

 
Master of his domain: Dan Haren, +15.2%
God-emperor of suck: Orlando Hudson, -6.2%

Gotta love Fangraphs that look like this. The offense was efficient, scoring their 10 runs on 11 hits. Young, Jackson (whose batting average is up to .316) and Reynolds each had two hits, and every started got on base at some point, although Burke was only on thanks to a fielder's choice.

A good start to the series, and a phenomenal matchup on the mound tomorrow with Lincecum and Webb. Can the offense give that same run support to Webby tomorrow and guarantee a series victory? I'm certainly not holding my breath, but there have been signs of improvement lately. Either way, it should be a great game to watch.

On Friday, the Arizona Diamondbacks gave starting pitcher Dan Haren something he hasn’t had a lot of this season. Run support. The D-Backs erupted for 5 runs in the 2nd inning, giving Haren more than enough cushion in an easy 10-2 win over the Giants Friday night at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Haren continued his recent dominance over the National League, going 8 innings and allowing only 2 runs, while scattering 9 hits and striking out 9. Haren hasn’t allowed a home run in 7 straight starts, dating back to June 12th, when Mets’ catcher Ramon Castro connected on a solo blast in the 2nd inning. Haren raised his record to 10-5 on the season. On the flip side, Giants’ starter Jonathan Sanchez was chased early after giving up 5 hits and 6 runs in just 2 and two-thirds innings- his shortest outing of the year.

Conor Jackson, Mark Reynolds and Chad Tracy all homered for the Diamondbacks, while Chris Snyder started the scoring with an rbi single in the 2nd, followed by 2-run doubles by Stephen Drew and Chris Young.

The win evens the Diamondbacks’ record at 51-51, and keeps them atop the division by 1 game over the Dodgers.

MLB.com : Recap | Boxscore

Here’s what others are saying about the Diamondbacks’ win over the Giants…

The series continues tomorrow with a marquee pitching matchup of two of the best right-handers in baseball. Brandon Webb (13-4, 3.11 ERA) goes for the Diamondbacks and he’ll be faced by Tim Lincecum (11-3, 2.79 ERA) of the Giants. First pitch is at 6:05 Arizona time.

Dan Haren RHP, 9-5, 2.58

Jonathan Sanchez LHP, 8-5, 4.10

Baseball-Reference.com preview [opens in new window]

Onto the road go the Diamondbacks once again, with a West coast sweep that takes in three of our division rivals. We'll go on through San Diego and Los Angeles, but the first stop is San Francisco. With the Dodgers facing woeful Washington - just swept by the Giants - it's important to get off on the right foot here. And of late, there's no-one better to do so for the D-backs, than Dan Haren. In his last five starts, he has an ERA of 0.75, having allowed three earned runs in 36 innings of work, with opponents batting .165 against him over that time. His current streak of seven straight starts allowing two or less earned runs, is something even Webb hasn't done, and trails only the Big Unit (nine games in 1999), as far as franchise history goes.

Our offense has come back to life a little of late, with the July OPS of .732 being the best by the team since April. However, I am a little concerned that the collective BABIP is .322, which is a little high, and probably lucky. Hudson (.418) and Tracy (.447) are particular outliers this month; on the other hand, Jackson's .333 average is based on a BABIP just sixteen points higher. Which seems like a good place to reproduce this chart, which by coincidence popped up in my email an hour or two ago.

Baseball Prospectus Stat of the Day

File that in the large box, marked "And we would want to swap Jackson for Teixeira, why, exactly?" It's very interesting to note that, while Berkman and Pujols are light-years ahead, Jackson [salary $420K] fits in between Teixieira [$12.5] and Derrek Lee [$13.25m]. In terms of value for money, there may be no better options at the position in the National League this year.

Here's a little snippet I was forwarded, that sheds a light on why we've struggled so much this season, and why we went out and got Jon Rauch. According to Santo Lombarbarda of the Elias Sports Bureau, through Monday, only one team in the majors had a lead through six innings more often than the D-backs:

Team                        Lead   Games    Win %
St. Louis Cardinals          57      101     .564   
Arizona Diamondbacks         53       99     .535   
Milwaukee Brewers            50       99     .505   
Boston Red Sox               51      101     .505   
Texas Rangers                50      100     .500   
New York Mets                49       99     .495   
Toronto Blue Jays            49       99     .495   
Chicago Cubs                 48       99     .485   
Los Angeles Angels           48       99     .485   
Atlanta Braves               47       99     .475   

The overall figure for the Diamondbacks' bullpen also speak for themselves:

                 2007    2008   
W-L             30-19   10-18  
Blown saves        15      16     

Some bits of news. Juan Cruz will throw tonight on a rehab assignment, then probably again on Monday - and if those two outings go well, he'll be back with us in time for the tail of the Padres series, or early in the Dodgers' one. However, Justin Upton is still at least a week away and hasn't even started taking real swings as yet. Our recent draft pick [#43 overall], Wade Miley is scouted by Alex Eisenberg over at The Hardball Times, as part of his look at picks #36-43. And I was interviewed by Troy of FullOfSports.com, and we discussed the D-backs second-half prospects: it can be found within their latest podcast.

Should be around or about for tonight's game, and I think it's Azreous scheduled for the recap? Failing that, I'll get it done in the morning: we have a busy weekend in project [cabaret tomorrow, lucha libre on Sunday], so even though we have taken Monday off work, we will have to cram in as much sloth tonight as possible!

The Anquan Boldin vs. the Arizona Cardinals feud sort of put the fact that top pick Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie hadn’t been signed by the team on the back burner. That issue has now been moved off the stove altogether, as today Rodgers-Cromartie inked a 6-year contract with the club.

Rodgers-Cromartie was the 16th overall pick in the NFL Draft in April out of Tennessee State, where he picked off two passes and returned them for touchdowns last season. He is expected to arrive at camp in Flagstaff on Saturday.

I'd like apologize for the two week hiatus of any articles being  published due to illness, work, and a lot of distractions. But I'm back again today with a two for one special.

Today we're going to compare and contrast two left handed outfielders that were drafted out of college last year. The first one is a guy I've been keeping my eye on since early this season, Pete Clifford. The other one is Evan Frey, who I honestly hadn't paid that much attention to until Nick Piecoro named him the Dbacks #7 prospect (He's move up from #8 after the Bonifacio trade)

I really liked the commentary that resulted from my prospect article that compared and contrasted Emilio Bonifacio and Rusty Ryal, so I'm going to try and do something similar with the next couple of articles by looking at two prospects who share the same position or pitching role.

I'd like to first look at each players basic biographical make up e. g. date of birth, height, weight, school, draft position. Once we've got that done, we'll look the player‘s performance at the high school or college level (if applicable, of course). Then we'll look at how they've performed in the minor leagues. Then we'll wrap it up by making our final analysis, where we'll make an estimate on when they should be ready for the majors, what areas they need to improve to get there. I‘ll pass my own judgment on who I think is the better prospect, and then leave it up to you guys(and gals) to vote in a poll in who you think is better. Then we can all argue in the commentary. .


Background, Physical Makeup and Tools

Pete Clifford was born on December 20, 1983 in Jacksonville, Florida. He's listed at an even 6'0 and weighing 195LBs. He bats left handed, and throws right handed. He attended Jacksonville University, and was drafted by the Diamondbacks as a senior in the 20th round with (as) the 613th overall pick. Clifford's strengths offensively are hitting for average and drawing walks. And even though he doesn't hit a lot of homers, he does have some pretty good power.

Clifford is an above average outfielder defensively that makes very few fielding errors. In the minors he's played 54% percent of his games in left, 17% in center, 12% in right field, and the remainder as the DH. 75% of his starts have been in left field, and that will be his primary defensive position through out his career, especially if he's going to succeed in the majors with the Dbacks.  I can't say with much certainty that he's capable of playing right field since I don't have any information or scouting reports that talk about his throwing arm. He's not going to see any time in center this year with the newly promoted Evan Frey holding down the position for Visalia.

Evan Frey was born on June 7th, 1986 in Edwardsville, Illinois. He's listed at 6'0 in height, and weighing 170lbs. He bats and throws left handed. Attended the University of Missouri Colombia, and was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 10th round of the 2007 draft as the 313th overall pick. Like Clifford, Frey has good speed on the base paths, makes a ton of contact, and has good strike zone judgment. He hits the ball on the ground a little over 50% of the time, suggesting that he's a slap hitter. Frey's biggest negative is the fact that he's displayed essentially zero home run power throughout his college and professional career.

Frey is an excellent defensive center fielder with outstanding range, speed, and very few errors. Frey will have to stay at center field if he's going to be a major league ball player. He just doesn't have the power to be an every day starting left or right fielder on winning major league ball club.

Physically the two players are quite similar. Obviously both bat left handed and are an even six feet in height. I haven't seen either player play in person, nor do I have access to any advanced scouting reports, so I can't comment on either player's speed, throwing arm, Clifford's heavier frame gives him more power, but Frey's youth gives him the advantage in age.


Performance in College

College statistics are really hard for me to include in these prospect comparison. As I've said before, it's really hard to make any sort of real evaluation based on college statistics due the differences in equipment (aluminum bats), competition (which can range greatly from conference to conference), and schedule.

Pete Clifford played four years in the NCAA for Jacksonville University. That's actually very uncommon. Most college players, including Evan Frey, enter the MLB draft as juniors. This gives the players more leverage in signing negotiations, since the player can always go back to college and play their senior year. Peter Clifford, instead of entering the draft as a junior, stayed in college to finish his education. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree, majoring in management. The fact that he had no problem finishing his education while hurting his draft status, IMHO, adds a lot to his character and makeup.


Although Peter Clifford didn't put up jaw dropping home run totals in college, he did put up excellent numbers all four years in college.


In his 188 at bats as a 20 year old freshmen, he put up a .346/.399/.468 overall line, with 12 doubles, a triple and a home run. He walked 15 times while striking out 35 times. He also stole 5 bases, but was caught stealing 3 times; a 62.5 success rate, just under the 67-70% break even point.


In his 203 at bats as a 21 year old sophomore, Clifford hit .325/.413/.493 with 13 doubles and 7 Home Runs. He walked 29 times while striking out 25 times. Once again he stole 5 bases, but was caught 4 times. Although his batting average went down and his success rate on the base paths went down slightly, Clifford improved every facet of his game.


In his season the next year as a 22 year old junior, Pete Clifford continued improving his offense game. In 262 at bats he hit 317/.394/.477 with 21 doubles, 3 triples, and 5 home runs. He walked 31 times and struck out 40 times. The real break out for Clifford was on the base paths, where he stole 21 bases while getting caught only 3 times. It's interesting to note the decrease in his slugging percentage, which is odd, considering he put up career bests in doubles and triples, but had only 2 less home runs.


In his final season as a 23 year old senior, Clifford hit .351/.455/.623 with 17 doubles, 2 triples, and a career high 14 home runs. He drew 43 walks while striking out 30 times. Once again he swiped 21 bags, but was caught 5 times. Clifford ended his college career posting career highs in batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, walks, and home runs.


Now that we've gone over Clifford's performance in college, let's look at Evan Frey.

As a 19 year old college freshman, Evan Frey's performance in 55 abs is statistically insignificant, but I'll go ahead and talk about it any way. He hit .164/.242/.200 with 4 walks and 11 strike outs. Of his 9 hits, 2 went for doubles. He stole one base and was caught stealing once. 55 abs is just way too small of a sample to really discuss, so let's move on to his sophomore year.

In 190 at bats as a 20 year old sophomore, Frey hit .337/.457/.389 with 64 hits, but only seven extra base hits: four doubles and three triples. He walked 29 times while striking out 33 times. Frey stole 9 bases while getting caught twice. Frey also got hit by pitches 14 times. Ouch.

In his 224 at bats the next year as a 21 year old junior, Frey hit .348/.447/.496 with 78 hits, this time 20 going for extra bases; 11 doubles, 5 triples, and a still personal best 4 home runs. Frey drew 39 walks and struck out 41 times. He stole 10 bases but was caught 7 times of 58.8% success rate, well below the break even point. All though he wasn't plunked quite as many times as the year before, Frey still got plunked 8 times.

So what kind of insight and analysis can we get looking at the two players college careers? Clifford's college career is outstanding. Every year he was productive, hitting for average, getting on base, and slugging the ball. He showed good plate discipline, and also really turned on the speed the last two years of college.

With Evan Frey we obviously don't have as large of a sample size to work with, since he was drafted after his junior season. Not to mention that his age 19 season is pretty much irrelevant, and can be thrown out. However, I think we have enough of a sample with his age 20 and 21 seasons that we can cast some judgment on his college performance. In those two seasons, Frey showed excellent contact skills and plate discipline. I'd like to mention that although Frey had a higher on base percentage than Clifford in those two seasons, if you remove the high amount of hit by pitches in his age 20 season, his excellent .457 on base percentage drops down to a still quite good 364. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a Craig Biggio or Carlos Quentin repeatable skill, and it’s clearly just a statistical outlier.


Minor League Production and History


Now that we've looked at each player's performance in college, we can now look at their performance in the minors since being drafted last year.

After being drafted and signing with the Diamondbacks, Peter Clifford was assigned to the Missoula Ospreys, Arizona's rookie ball affiliate in the Pioneer League. In his 225 at bats with the Ospreys, Clifford hit .280/.378/.502 with 16 doubles, 2 triples, and 10 home runs. He drew 36 walks, while striking out 51 times. He stole 8 bases while getting caught only once for a 89% success rate. Overall I'd say his debut season in the minor leagues was a successful one. Not exactly jaw dropping numbers of course, considering his age relative to the rest of the league, but all of his numbers - his BA, OBP, SLG%, and his BB:K ratio are definitely positive signs. The ten home runs are nice sign too. Compare his .880 OPS to the overall .701 OPS of his team, and to the .760 overall OPS of the Pioneer League, and you find yet another positive.

After his solid debut season in rookie ball, the Diamondbacks had Clifford skip their low a ball affiliate, South Bend, and assigned him to the Hi A Affiliate Visalia Oaks to begin 2008. Clifford has thrived, and he's been the Oaks' best hitter this year, and leads the team in OPS, doubles, triples, and walks. In 336 at bats he's hitting .307/.416/.503 with 29 doubles, 5 triples, and 9 home runs. He's drawn 59 walks to 88 strike outs. He's stolen 10 bases while getting caught 6 times for a 62.5% success rate, a bit under the break even point.

Looking further into his statistics this year, specifically his batting splits, I found that he's struggled against left handed pitching, at least this year. Since I can't seem to find his batting splits from last year, I'm not sure if this is a trend, or just the result of a random fluctuation in his BABIP (.303 vs. LHP, .432 vs. RHP). Either way, in 99 at bat Bs vs. LHP he's hitting .242/.361/.384, as opposed to .333/.439/.553 vs. RHP. Out of his 103 hits this year, only 24 have come against LHP. Of his 43 extra base hits, only 10 have come against left hand pitching - seven doubles, two triples, and one home run. Compared to his results against RHP, the rate that he hits the ball on the ground drops, his line drive rate drops, and his fly ball percent shoots up. I'm not exactly sure what to make all of that, but I'm sure some of you can make more sense of those numbers than I can. Now that we've taken a thorough look at Pete Clifford‘s offensive production in the minors, we can shift our focus back to Evan Frey, and see what his production has been like in the minors so far.


After being drafted by Arizona and signing in June 2007, Evan Frey was assigned to the Diamondbacks' short season a ball affiliate in the North Western League, the Yakima Bears. In 246 at bats, Frey hit .309/.384/.390 with 76 hits, but only 14 going for extra bases, consisting of 8 doubles and 6 triples. He took 27 walks while striking out 42 times. He had 13 stolen bases, but was caught stealing 10 times for a 57% success rate. As always, comparing his OPS (.774) to his team's OPS (.713) and the league's OPS (.713) puts his numbers in to the context of the quality of the competition he's playing with, in addition to telling you about the hitting environment he's playing in.

Evan Frey began this year with a promotion to full season A Ball South Bend in the Midwestern League, before being promoted to Visalia. In his 309 at bats with South Bend, Frey hit .327/.401/.417. He had a lot of hits, 101 to be exact, but only 24 were extra base hits. He didn't hit any home runs, but he did have 16 doubles and 6 triples. Frey drew 39 walks and struck out 38 times. I think the most important improvement is his much better results on the base paths. Frey stole 20 bases, and was caught 6 times, giving him a 77 percent success rate.

After a nice run in South Bend, Evan Frey was promoted on July 2 to Hi A Visalia. He's played in 20 games, and in his 84 at bats he's hitting .262/.367/.417 with three doubles, two triples, and two home runs. He's walked 12 times and has struck out 20 times. He's also stolen three bases, but has been caught twice. Frey has really struggled against left handed pitching since his promotion. He has a .894 OPS in 53 at bats against right handed pitching, but only a .588 OPS in 31 at bats against left handed pitching. In addition, he's struggled hitting away from home. In his 32 at bats at home, he's hitting.469/.528/.688 for a 1.216 OPS. In his 52 at bats away from Visalia he's hitting just .135/.274/.250 for a .524 OPS. Since we're dealing with such a small sample size here no matter how you look at it, I can't really say how significant any of his numbers for Visalia are. We'll just have to come back and re-visit his numbers in a month or at the end of the season to make some real analysis.

Overall Thoughts on Each Player

Now that I’ve gone in to both players’ offensive production from their freshmen year in college all the way up to their current numbers with Visalia, I feel that I can make a more insightful analysis in to what kind of player they are right now.

I’ll be honest; I’m a bit biased towards Peter Clifford over Evan Frey. Peter Clifford may not have the advantage of age that Frey has, but if you over look that, Clifford, in my opinion, is clearly the better player.

Throughout his four years of college and into his professional career, Peter Clifford has been an extremely productive hitter. Throughout his career he’s been hitting for average and getting on base at a good clip He’s shown that he has some good speed on the base paths, especially with his back to back 21 stolen base seasons. Although he doesn’t have a ton of home run power, he’s shown that he could hit 15-20 homers if given a full season’s worth of at bats. He should be a very good left fielder defensively.. Throughout his career, he's built on his performance the year before by improving in every facet of his game offensively. He's also proven the quality of his character and make up with his decision to stay in college so he could finish his education, even though it would clearly affect his draft position and his leverage in contract negotiations.

Clifford in all likely hood will never be a Hall of Famer or a superstar, but he certainly could have a few all star caliber years. Of course there's always the chance that he won't pan out, but at the very least I think could up the left handed half of a platoon or possibly serve as a left handed 4th outfielder. 

If everything goes right I can see Peter Clifford having a batting average right around the .300 mark, with an on base percentage normally in the .400s. I think his slugging percentage would fall in the high .400s to mid .500s in most seasons. I calculated what I think would be Peter Clifford's peak by taking his current career highs and projecting what he would have done given a full season of at bats. It's not a very scientific method, but the end result is 34 hrs, 8 triples, 45 doubles, and 50 stolen bases. I thing we'd all like to see that.

Even though Evan Frey has flashed very little power, I still think he could have some success in the Majors. He has a very high contact rate, doesn't strike out a lot, and is quite skilled at getting on base. Although it will never completely make up for his lack of power, his speed and aggressiveness on the base paths are a very good asset.  He's an excellent center fielder defensively with a ton of range and he's very reliable and sure handed at the position. Frey may never be every day starting center fielder, but at the very least, he could  serve as a left handed 4th outfielder, pinch runner, and defensive replacement.

If everything goes right i can see him hitting regular hitting .300 or higher, with OBP% above .400. His power is by far the biggest question mark. He's still young, so his power has the potential to develop some more, but I honestly can't see him hitting more than 5 HRs in a season. The thing I worry the most about is the lack of doubles and triple. In his best season, he had 16 doubles and 6 triples in 306 ABs. If he doesn't develop any more power than what he currently has shown, that works out to about 25 doubles and 10 triples in a full season worth of at bats. How ever, seeing Frey stealing >35 bases a year wouldn't be all that surprising.

Wrap Up

As usual I’ll wrap things up by asking my usual questions to promote some commentary and about these two players. Who do you think is the better prospect? Who has the best/most upside? Who has the most  downside? Who do you think is more likely to make it to the big leagues? When do you think each player will make it to the big leagues if every thing goes right? If either player reaches their full potential, what kind offensive performances do you expect?

As always, I'd like everyone for reading. You guys are the reason why I do this. I'd also like to thank Emily for proof reading for me. Please let me know what you think of this article and my writing, I'd certainly appreciate it. Let me know if you have any suggestions for future articles.

-Wesley "Zephon" Baier.

Sources

Peter Clifford MILB.com Official Player Page

Evan Frey MILB.com Official Player Pare

Peter Clifford Baseball Reference Page

Evan Frey Baseball Reference Page

Peter Clifford @ TheBaseballCube

Evan Frey @ TheBaseballCube

Pete Clifford @ Fangraphs

Evan Frey @ Fangraphs

Peter Clifford @ Minorleaguesplits.com

Evan Frey @ Minorleaguesplits.com

Usually it takes more than one day of training camp for the optimism of Cardinals fans to begin to wane. On Thursday though, the typical July “this will be the Cardinals year” turned to the October “here we go again” in a matter of minutes.

Before the team had even put on the pads, full contact drills began when Anquan Boldin dropped the bombshell that he is done with the Cardinals and that he no longer plans to negotiate an extension. Boldin cited the fact that the general manager Rod Graves and the Cardinals promised him a new contract prior to the season but failed to deliver on their promise as the reason for his displeasure.

Most people want to point the finger directly at Anquan Boldin and rightly so. Up until last night, I completely agreed. I felt that that Boldin was off base with his comments and that he had to honor his word, and his signed contract, as much as the Cardinals needed to honor theirs and restructure his deal. After thinking about it a little longer though something else came to mind.

Let me ask you a question…what do Anquan Boldin, Marion Barber, Lance Briggs, Plaxico Burress, Darnell Dockett, Jevon Kearse, Chad Johnson, Willis McGahee, Santana Moss, Terrell Owens, Jeremy Shockey and Kellen Winslow Jr have in common?

If you answered that they all have publicly voiced displeasure with their teams and contracts you’d be right. They share one more common thread as well, Drew Rosenhaus.

The Rosenhaus Effect is what is truly to blame when it comes to the predicament the Cardinals find themselves in.

The Rosenhaus effect is the pattern of hostile negotiation tactics and media attention that his clients tend to rely on to get renegotiated deals. Due to this Rosenhaus’ clients seem to find be the most needy in the NFL. They have more demands than a James Bond villain, and less leverage.

The reason for the Rosenhaus effect is simple. Drew likes to be the center of attention. What other agent gets 10 minutes to talk on SportsCenter or a Burger King commercial? What other agent can you actually quote in everyday sports conversation? (NEXT QUESTION!) For that matter, what other agent would you recognize if you saw him in public?

Rosenhaus’ guerilla negotiation tactics are done deliberately through the media to force franchises hands. As seen in previous Rosenhaus productions “Briggs Bashes Bears” and “TO Takes on Philly”, teams either cave in or trade the disgruntled player to a team willing to give into the contract parameters. This is the exact script he is having Boldin follow. Voice displeasure with your contract and mention it to the media, open negotiations, threaten to not report to camp, blame the team if no deal is done and then force the teams hand.

By no means does this absolve Boldin or the Cardinals organization. Both are in the wrong. What it does do is explain why exactly Boldin thinks with 3 years left on a deal that he can rock the boat. It also explains why a guy who seems to be one of the hardest working players in the NFL could look like such a prima donna right now.

If I was the Cardinals front office, I’d let Boldin wait it out. Giving into him only gives more momentum to The Effect. Do the rest of the NFL a service and make Anquan sweat a little. If he actually continues to complain and be an issue for three years it will kill his value. Who would want a disgruntled 30 year old wide receiver with Rosenhaus for an agent? (Oh yeah, the Dallas Cowboys).

There is a positive from the situation. Thanks to The Rosenhaus Effect the Cardinals have reached a new record at crushing fans hopes. At least it will save me some agony on Sundays.